Hello all,

Old member who hasn't visited in a while.

I have 05 Caravan 2.4 with about 148k.

I've noticed recently that there is kind of a whirring sound when I turn the AC on. It stops about 1-2 seconds after you turn the AC off. (searching around I did find a video that sounds pretty much like my van:
It cools just fine, no noticeable driving or any other issues. I did have the tensioner replaced last Dec.

Also, I haven't been driving it much lately (new car, trying to save some miles on the van). So I'm wondering if I'm just noticing it because I haven't been in it that much lately.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Would have been nice to hear from the engine area but does sound like a compressor on it's last leg

 

Well darn, not really what I want to deal with now. If the compressor goes, is it driveable? I've heard some say yes, some say no.
Thanks!

 

I took it to my mechanic so he could have a listen. He couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary at all.
I did tell him (and forgot to mention originally), that when I first really noticed this noise on Saturday, I did a little research. One suggestion was to check power steering fluid. It was low, not drastically, but really needed to be topped off. Once I did that, the sound pretty much went away. He thought maybe the sound was the power steering pump and it was just low enough to put some strain on it when I turned on the AC.

 

Could have been. The noise in that video is not power steering noise. No noise is good news, cross your fingers.

 

Thanks. Yeah, I'm going to be careful and listen closely for a while to see if it comes back or not.